Chapter Eighteen Estera Roberts’ POV (Present Time)

Ameera, Ashley, and I put on our masks before we exited the helicopter. I could hear the music from the floor below as we found our way down the flight of stairs to the club hall. I have been to a club before but it was of a different caliber, nothing close to this at all. Most of the invitees were men in their middle thirties and early forties. They were nicely dressed and hung about with drinks in hand. The decor and the setting were magnificent and speak of class.
“Hello, hello, welcome!” A white male that was about six-foot-tall approached us. He had a kind smile and looked completely different from what I had expected.
“Do you know who that is?” Ashley whispered close to my ear. Ameera leaned in so she could hear what she was telling me. “That’s Jacob McKnight, a technological entrepreneur, philanthropist, and the founder of the Canary, the free social networking site!”
“I thought he would look… bookish,” I whispered back, studying the man. Aside from his impressive height, he looked fit and attractive. His hair was cut low, military style, and although he could not be simply shelf as handsome he was not bad looking.
“And bald and wearing flip flops…” Ameera interjected and we all chuckled.
“Now the payment and no phone policy makes sense,” I said.
“Hmm… how come he is making his nuptials a secret? This kind of news should be in the media,” Ameera said and we waited as Anna and Tamika walked ahead of us to greet our host first.
“Might be some strategy… rich people are weird,” I said, the girls laughed.
“It may be that we haven’t seen it, when was the last time we had the free time to watch TV or listen to the news?”
“Man, I wish I could google it right now,” Ameera said.
“It’s lovely to make your acquaintance,” our host said in our general direction. “Bobby already explained your preferences, and I’m going to tell you lovely ladies the same thing I told him, we are all gentlemen and just here to have fun in a judgment-free zone. You ladies are the main highlight of the night. We have prepared a room for you to get ready and when you are done with your thing consider staying to enjoy the rest of the night with us. Sam here—” he said pausing as a tall man in a security getup stepped forward, “ —will take care of you. So, relax, enjoy yourselves.”
“Thank you,” we chorused.
“Please—” he said, opening his arms in a welcoming sweep to urge us to go on inside. “--help yourself to whatever you want.” He smiled as his eyes slowly assessed us. And just like him, almost all the men in the room stopped their actions to watch us.
We milled after Sam to a side hallway. I felt like a circus monkey, albeit a very sexy one. The door to the third room down the hallway was left ajar and I could see a stripper giving a man a lap dance. I figured Bobby was not the only one contracted to bring in girls.
“In here,” Sam said, opening the door to a changing room.
“Thank you,” Anna said, and walked in. We all followed her.
“You are due to come out in—” he paused to check the digital watch around his wrist, “--fifteen minutes. I will be back for you then.”
“No worries,” Tamika said and shut the door slowly.
We all started to take off our jackets, checking ourselves in the mirror again to be certain everything was still in place.
A gentle knock sounded from the door, Anna went to check and then open the door wide for whoever it was to come inside. Two servers walked in carrying trays of hors d'oeuvres and drinks with bottled water.
“That’s what I'm talking about!” Tamika said.
“I don’t know if I can eat anything until we are done,” Ameera said.
I watched as one of the servers picked up a sealed bottle of Screaming Eagle Cabernet 1992 red wine and started to unscrew it, I shared a look with Ashley and she smiled. Ameera stepped forward to get some for us and we took the glasses from her.
“Thank you!” I said and groaned when I drank it and the rich taste spread in my mouth. “Oh, my God the last time I tasted something this smooth was—” I stopped myself before I could finish the statement. I was a tad taken aback that I had easily wanted to let a memory from my past slip out so casually.
“You have tasted something this good before?! Estera, you are holding back on me girl!” Ashley said and I laughed.
“Some party—” I mumbled. “We must hurry, we have less than fifteen minutes now,” I said, hoping to distract her, and breathe a sigh of relief when she quickly drank her wine and hurried to pick some of the finger food to stuff in her mouth.
I stepped forward to take some crackers with spicy fish. Ameera opened her mouth so I could feed her out of it and I did, watching her munch it with satisfaction. Then she hurried forward to take some for herself and gave me two more from hers.
“Seven minutes,” someone I guessed must be Sam said from outside the closed door. His voice was a bit muffled so I couldn’t be certain. The girls scrambled to get ready and I went to the adjoining bathroom to wash my hands and have a few minutes to myself.
Leaning against the tiled wall, I shut my eyes and took a calming breath.
“You can do this,” I muttered.
“You okay?” Anna asked, making me open my eyes.
“Yeah,” I replied.
“Good. Let’s do this so we can all finally relax,” she said in a friendly tone. My lips stretched in a smile.
We all filed out of the room with Anna and Tamika in the lead. The popular songs by Queen B, who runs the world (Girls) started blasting and Anna said, “Ready? Let’s go!” like we were some cheerleading team. My heart lunged hard in my chest as the girls pranced forward. I was the last on the line.